How to make a colourful vegan sweet potato bowl

Start by putting peeled sweet potatoes on to boil.

I recommend you cut them in half, to speed cooking time – I didn’t, and they were a little undercooked.

Second, prepare your mushrooms – dried or fresh.

You can use dried mushrooms, or fresh. I like to have dried mushrooms in my pantry, they don’t spoil, and I always have some on hand.

Dried mushrooms are so amazingly excellent for flavoring soups.

They tasted great rehydrated in this recipe as well, a bit chewier than fresh though. The broth you get from rehydrating mushrooms is so flavorful, save it if you can!

I bought this huge container of gourmet dried mushrooms from Costco, and followed the instructions for rehydrating, first in hot water, then boiling. I used the microwave, thinking it would be faster and easier. If you use a microwave too, be careful the water doesn’t boil over. Next time, I think I will use a pot on the stove instead, so I can boil the mushrooms longer and make them less chewy.

If you are using fresh mushrooms,

even better!

See the recipe notes for instructions.

Saute them, with some diced white onions if you have any, in a large skillet. Remove to a separate dish and use the same skillet for the chickpeas and/or tofu.

Third, make the chickpeas and tofu.

Either / both taste excellent in this recipe, separately or together.

Chop some green onions, add to a large skillet with soy sauce and fresh ground black pepper and add the drained chickpeas or tofu.

Add in the spices, and mushroom broth. This is where you might use tofu instead.

Here, I am making chickpeas for my husband and I, and plain tofu for the kids – because one of my daughters doesn’t like chickpeas (we think she is crazy for this, but love her anyways).

These spices are going to fire it up whether you use chickpeas, tofu, or both.

While my chickpeas saute, I heated up the kids tofu for 3 – 4 minutes in the pot of boiling water for the sweet potatoes.

I could also have done this in the mushroom water, didn’t think of that until later, that would be even better, yum!

First, reserve about 5 cubes of cold tofu for the Fiery Vegan Mayo Sauce, throw them in a small blender instead of the boiling water.

Instructions

Sweet Potato

Put a pot of water on to boil. Peel the sweet potatoes and cut in half (to speed cooking time). Add to the boiling water. They should take about 10 - 15 minutes to cook. Test with a fork and when soft, remove them to a cutting board, slice into rounds just before adding to bowls.

Follow instructions for re-hydrating the dried mushrooms. I use the microwave. Add mushrooms to the bowls when you plate them. No need to saute dried mushrooms, they are flavourful on their own. Use the broth to cook the tofu / chickpeas. Reserve extra delicious broth for future cooking.

Chickpeas / Tofu

While the sweet potatoes cook, drain the chickpeas / cube the tofu.

Reserve some tofu cubes for the sauce.

Add green onions, soy sauce, and fresh pepper to a large skillet on medium heat.